ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,446,664, issued on Oct. 21, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).
"Article of footwear having an upper" was invented by Yen Lin Lee (Taichung, Taiwan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An article of footwear, the article having a sole structure; and an upper coupled to a top of the sole structure. The upper includes an opening and a closure system, wherein the closure system has one or more flexible bands and one or more gripping mats attached to the one or more flexible bands. The one or more gripping mats include a plurality of microlocks, an inner film and an outer film, with the one or more flexible bands and the one or more gripp...